Cover for printed matter

ABSTRACT

A cover for a for a book-type article includes a front and a back cover, each of the front and the back cover having an inner and an outer surface, and a spine joining the front and the back cover. The cover also includes flaps extending from outer edges of the front and the back covers and being separated therefrom by groove portions, the flaps being folded along the groove portions substantially parallel to the outer surface of the front and back covers. An outer surface of the flaps is joined to connecting portions of the book-type article such that the inner surface of both the front and the back cover and at least one of an inner surface of the flaps and the connecting portions of the book-type article define an air pocket, the air pocket being closed at outer edges of the front and the back cover and being open toward the spine.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

The present invention relates to a cover for a printed matter whichcover comprises front and back covers with outer surfaces and a spinejoining them, the cover being attached to a book block in the printedmatter by means of connecting means in the printed matter.

It is known from prior art to make both hard covers and paperback coversfor printed matters. Nowadays so-called hard covers are formed byjoining together by gluing, for example, different cover manufacturingmaterials, these materials being glued to each other at their surfaces.Covers manufactured in this way in a separate manufacturing process areattached to the flyleaf or the book block of the printed matter. Thecover manufactured in this manner is rigid and hard, but the manufactureof the cover requires a laborious work process in which the differentparts of the cover are shaped and attached to one another.

On the other hand, so-called paperback books have flexible paperboardcovers. These covers are normally of the same size or smaller than thebook block. Covers of this kind cannot, however, keep the printed matterin shape. Also, covers such as these get damaged easily, they get bentand their edges crack, for example.

Prior art further teaches combinations of these which attempt to imitatea hard cover with a flexible paperboard. These kinds of cover assembliesare disclosed in WO 95/34430, U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,029 or U.S. Pat. No.4,615,541, for example. Covers such as these are, however, complicatedin structure and require a rather great amount of material and separateproduction lines when manufactured.

Finally, prior art teaches different detachable covers that are insertedinto a strong false cover in a book or into a cover of a paperback book.These kinds of covers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,630, forexample. This kind of a cover also requires a separate production lineand it is difficult to join it into the book or the book block. Thedetachable cover cannot stay in place properly but the book block tendsto fall off from the cover.

The object of the present invention is to form a cover for a printedmatter that is simple to manufacture and is flexible, soft andcomfortable to handle. A further object of the invention is to form acover that does not restrict the mutual format of the book block and thecover.

The present invention will obviate the disadvantages mentioned above andprovide a cover for a printed matter that can be formed fast andadvantageously.

This object is achieved in such a manner that the cover for the printedmatter has the characteristics specified in the claims in accordancewith the invention. More exactly, this product according to theinvention is characterized in that the front and back covers comprise attheir outer edges flaps separated by grooves, which flaps, when foldedbetween the connecting means and the front and back covers essentiallyin the direction of their outer surface and joined together and/or tothe connecting means, provide an air pocket in both front and backcovers making the assembly of the cover rigid.

The invention is based on the idea that as each book block comprisesfalse covers in both front and back surface of the block, or theflyleaves, they should be utilized more efficiently in the adhesion andforming of the covers. In this way an assembly is attained in which thebook cover is formed only by joining together the book block accordingto the invention and the false covers or the flyleaves, that is, in thefollowing, the so-called connecting means.

Considerable advantages are achieved by means of the invention. Thus bymeans of it the covers of the printed matter will be made soft, flexibleand comfortable to handle by simple solutions in such a manner that theshape of the cover is also in its format independent of the book block.

As the cover block according to the invention is a kind of asemi-manufactured product that will obtain its final shape when arrangedin connection with the book block, a considerable amount of materialwill be saved in manufacturing the cover. Considerable manufacturingcosts are preserved by means of saved material and an easier adhesion ofthe cover block. As the cover block is preferably assembled only byfolding, a considerable amount of glue will also be saved. On account ofthe reduced amount of glue and its uniform structure, the coveraccording to the invention can also be recycled efficiently withouthaving to be detached and sorted out separately.

The thickness of the cover for the printed matter according to theinvention and its appearance can be varied in a simple way by changingthe shape or number of the groovings at the edges. This uncomplicatedway of changing the thickness of the cover makes it easier to providevarious pockets and compartments in the cover. The possibility to varythe thickness of the cover according to the invention also makes iteasier to use different ways of surface profiling and surface printingor even surface piercing as an effect on the cover. On account of itsassembly, the weight of the cover according to the invention willnonetheless remain at 10 to 50 per cent of the weight of the covers forprinted matters at present. This method of manufacturing a lighter bookwill make transportation cheaper and handling of the book morecomfortable.

When using the cover according to invention, the spine of the book isnot glued to the spine of the book block as in paperback books, but whengluing is done, the spine between the cover and the false covers will befree, thus making it possible for it to bend freely when the book isopened. In this way, the book will remain open better and the spine ofthe book block or the spine of the cover will not break in use.

The processing of the cover block can easily be combined to themanufacturing process of the book block, which will prevent the coverfrom being handled separately. The printing and cutting of the cover andalso its make-up and gluing take place preferably at the same time asthe printing and the shaping of the book block.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the invention will be explained with reference to theappended drawings, in which

FIG. 1 shows an end view of the printed matter according to theinvention in such a manner that the left side of the central axis isshown as a cross-sectional view,

FIG. 2 shows a cover block according to the invention in which the rightside of the spine is shown to be folded ready for gluing, and the leftside of the spine is shown spread open and grooved,

FIG. 3 shows another cover block according to the invention in which theright side of the spine is shown to be folded ready for gluing, and theleft side of the spine is shown spread open and grooved, the flaps beingnarrow, and

FIG. 4 shows a detail of the outer edge of the cover for the printedmatter according to a third embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One preferred embodiment according to the invention shown in FIGS. 1 and2 comprises a printed matter provided with a cover 1. This covercomprises front and back covers 2 and 3 and a spine 4 joining themtogether, the cover being arranged at its front and back covers to abook block 5. The book block comprises leaves 6 that are connected toeach other by some known method, such as gluing, binding or stapling andconnecting means 7, such as flyleaves or false covers. The front andback covers 2 and 3 are attached e.g. to the book block or to the falsecovers 7 in the book block with methods known per se.

The cover according to the invention is formed by die-cutting the coverblock into such a form that it comprises flaps 8 to 13 in addition tothe front and back covers 2 and 3 and the spine 4 joining them. Theshape of the flaps is chosen to be such that they form an inner surface14 to the cover when they are folded along grooves 15 to 20 intopositions following outer surfaces 21 of the front and back covers inaccordance with FIG. 2. When the finished format of the cover is formed,the cover is glued at its inner surface 14 to the book block 5 in thearea confined by the edges 22 and 23 of the flaps 8 and 10 on the sideof the spine 4 and the free edges of the connecting means, whereby anair pocket 24 is formed in the cover. The die-cutting, grooving, foldingand gluing of the cover block can be carried out with ordinary knownmachines or devices, the operation of which will not be described inmore detail herein.

The preferred shape of the flaps 8 to 13 may be other than that shown inthe figure, depending on the format and the model of the printed matterand the technical requirements of the gluing device. Therefore the flapscan contact one other at their free edges. They can be placed to overlapat their free edges or they form only a narrow gluing base at the edgesof the front and back covers.

FIG. 3 thus shows a cover block comprising the front and back covers 2and 3 combined by the spine 4 as in FIG. 2. In that case the flaps 8 to13 are separated by groovings 15 to 20 from the front and back covers,the flaps extending only some distance from the outer edge of the frontand back covers. When shaping the flaps, they can be arranged to be suchthat when folding the flaps against the front and back covers, theyoverlap at the outer corners. Thus it is made possible to attach theflaps to each other by spot-gluing, for example. This is not, however,necessary as the flaps can be shaped to be such that they will not be incontact with each another at any place in accordance with FIG. 3.

The flaps folded against the front and back cover are after this adheredto the connecting means 7 of the book block preferably by gluing.

The embodiment according to FIG. 3 saves as much material as possiblewith respect to both the paperboard for the cover and the consumption ofglue.

The shape of the cover according to the invention can be made forexample in the following way. The finished printed and surface-treatedcover sheet is die-cut into a preferred shape for the cover block withflaps 8 to 13. The grooves 15 to 20 are made in the block to facilitatethe folding of the flaps, whereby folding at least once by means offolding directions and lines defined by the grooves, the flaps 8 to 13are arranged to form a uniform surface, for example, for gluing thecover to the book block as shown in FIG. 2. In that case the flaps 11,12 and 13 of the back cover 3, for example, are folded in accordancewith FIG. 2 essentially 180 degrees along the grooves 18, 19 and 20,whereby the flaps are placed on the opposite side of the surface-treatedouter surface 21, thus forming the inner surface 14 of the cover. Thecover is then attached to the book block that has been made with methodsknown per se, such as sewing or gluing, which will not be explained inmore detail herein. Both front and back cover are attached to the bookblock at its inner surface 14 in the area confined by the edges 22 and23 of the flaps 8 and 10 and the free edges of the connecting means 7,such as the flyleaf, by gluing or adhering in other way to the bookblock or another printed matter. When the front and back covers arebound to the book block in this way, the structural layers of theirouter and inner surfaces remain apart from one another, thus forming anair pocket 24 in both cover parts 2, 3.

By changing the depth and breadth of the grooves, the air pocket 24 ofthe cover is formed into a preferable shape depending on the fibredirection and the strength of the material. FIG. 4 shows a detail of oneembodiment of the cover in which a thicker air pocket is arranged to thecover by having two parallel grooves 16' and 16" in the cover blockinstead of the groove 16. By folding the flap first 90 degrees at thegroove 16' and a further 90 degrees at the groove 16", an air pocket ofdesired thickness is produced in the cover.

The tendency of the cover material to straighten and form an air pocketafter folding has of course an effect on the preferred shape of the airpocket of the cover. This feature can be guided to a preferred directionas required each time either by strengthening, lowering or otherwisechanging the groovings 15 to 20.

The forming of the spine 4 of the printed matter is determined bymeasuring norms known per se and grooves 25 to 28, which will not beexplained in more detail herein.

It is to be understood that the specification above and the figuresrelated thereto are only meant to illustrate the present invention. Theinvention is therefore not restricted only to the embodiments shownabove or specified in the claims, but different variations andmodifications of the invention that are possible within the scope of theinventive idea and specified in the appended claims will be evident tothose skilled in the art. It is, of course, obvious to those skilled inthe art that the invention is not only restricted to the embodimentexplained above, but it can vary within the scope of the appended claim.

I claim:
 1. A cover for a for a book-type article, the covercomprising:a front and a back cover, each of the front and the backcover having an inner and an outer surface; a spine joining the frontand the back cover; and flaps extending from outer edges of the frontand the back covers and being separated therefrom by groove portions,the flaps being folded along the groove portions substantially parallelto the outer surface of the front and back covers, an outer surface ofthe flaps being joined to connecting portions of the book-type articlesuch that the inner surface of both the front and the back cover and atleast one of an inner surface of the flaps and the connecting portionsof the book-type article define an air pocket, the air pocket beingclosed at outer edges of the front and the back cover and being opentoward the spine.
 2. A cover according to claim 1, wherein the flaps areconnected together when folded.
 3. A cover according to claim 1, whereinthe connecting portion of the book-type article are endsheet papers of abook block.
 4. A cover according to claim 1, wherein the connectingportions of the book-type article are selfends arranged to the bookblock.
 5. A cover according to claim 1, wherein the flaps, when foldedbetween the connecting portions of the book-type article and the frontand back covers, form an essentially uniform front surface.
 6. A coveraccording to claim 1, wherein the flaps, when folded between theconnecting portions of the book-type article and the front and backcovers, form a frame proximate the portions without the flaps being incontact with each another.
 7. A cover according to claim 1, wherein thegroove portions each include two essentially parallel grooves, a firstgroove of the grooves being disposed proximate the outer edge and asecond groove of the grooves being disposed proximate the flaps,thickness of the air pocket being a function of a distance between thefirst and the second groove.